Author

Gratian

About Gratian

Gratian was a twelfth-century teacher of canon law, probably at Bologna, about whom very little is certain. He compiled the Decretum, the textbook that founded the systematic study of the law of the Church. Later tradition made him a Camaldolese monk, but this cannot be confirmed.

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Decretum (Concord of Discordant Canons)

c. 1140 · Medieval · Religious Scripture

The Decretum of Gratian, whose own title was the Concord of Discordant Canons (Concordia discordantium canonum), is the founding textbook of canon law, the law of the Western Church. It was compiled at Bologna around 1140, at the same time that teachers there were reviving the study of Justinian's Roman law.